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Conrad Murray, in taped interview, recalls being hired by Jackson

October 7, 2011 | 1:30
pm

Jurors heard a seemingly composed, even-keeled Conrad Murray describe how he came to care for Michael Jackson in the months leading up to the singer’s death, as the doctor’s interview with police was played Friday at his involuntary-manslaughter trial.

Speaking with an accent, the Grenada native spoke in a steady and measured voice as he responded to questions from Los Angeles Police Department detectives.

In the first few minutes of the interview played in the morning, Murray told police he first took care of Jackson in 2006 when the singer and his children had the flu.

He was introduced to the singer by a security guard who was a patient, Murray told detectives.

In the following years, he cared for Jackson “off and on, intermittently,” the doctor recalled.

Murray said he cared for Jackson for about two months the singer's June 2009 death.

He said the pop star’s assistant, Michael Amir Williams, called saying that Jackson “wanted very much” for the doctor to be part of his concert tour in London.

The doctor recounted telling Williams he would need more details “and shortly after, I got a call from Mr. Jackson about how elated he was that I was joining the trip,” even though he had yet to agree to sign on, Murray said in the interview.

Murray said it was later that he realized it would be the concert promoter AEG, not Jackson, that would be paying the salary for his work.

The physician’s 2 1/2-hour interview from two days after Jackson’s death has never before been made public, except for brief excerpts played last week by prosecutors during opening statements.

A detective has previously testified that during the interview, Murray said he administered a half-dose of the surgical anesthetic that killed Jackson, and that he had been trying to wean the entertainer off the drug.

LAPD Det. Scott Smith testified that the interview took place in a small office next to a banquet hall at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey. Music, rustling and chatting can be heard in the background.

In the recording, detectives told Murray that the interview would be used to assist the coroner in determining a cause of death for Jackson.